“Welcome to the first day of battling class, my name is Jordan Skywatcher and I will be in charge of you during this semester”.
Teacher Jordan stands in the center of the arena, behind him stand ten older teenagers wearing our academy graduate’s uniform.
The Battle Center, as the building is called, holds multiple combat arenas of all kinds, some clearly specialized for specific conditions of battle. We are taken to the regular ones made of concrete.
“For today, you will be separated in groups of ten and follow one of the assistants behind me”, as we all remain unmoving instructor Jordan eyebrow raises, “I said groups of ten, start moving!”.
Irene, the little redhead, is the first one to move and stand behind one of the assistants. I look towards Melody and Flavio, they say is going to better for us go into different groups, so I follow their lead and go towards one of the graduates.
Soon, there are ten students in each group, now that I’m closer I glance towards our assistant and notice a leather bag securely fastened to his shoulder.
“You can call me Jerry, I will be acting as your advisor and referee for today, follow me”.
Every group gets to their own arena, as we stand there in silence, Jerry opens the leather bag and brings out a pokeball, handing it to the closest student, then proceeds to get another pokeball and repeat the process until everyone is holding one.
“The pokeballs in your hands holds a normal type pokemon, they were randomly chosen between some of the most common from every region, and today you will use them on battle”.
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Interesting, our first battle, as I look around my group everyone seems determined and somewhat used to this process. I hear someone muttering “this is like the third exam”.
“To begin, you can use your pokedex to scan the pokeball and get specific information about the pokemon you are going to have as your partner for the day, you can examine them again when bringing them out for some extra information about their species, you have ten minutes to get ready for battle”.
With my pokedex I scan the pokeball, getting the following information:
Zigzagoon
Level: 9
Type: Normal
Gender: Male
Moves: Tackle, Growl, Sand Attack, Tail Whip, Covet.
I see the others in my group doing the same thing, with one of them bringing out a Rattata and begin interacting with it, so I bring Zigzagoon outside its pokeball. The little creature excitedly runs around my legs for a couple of seconds, then tilts his head and looks at me with his tongue outside. I try scanning him with my pokedex, an artificial feminine voice comes out from the pokedex, giving basic information about the pokemon:
“This raccoon dog-like Pokémon has bristly, zigzag-patterned fur in alternating layers of cream and brown. Its black mask-like pattern around the eyes adds to its distinctive look. Zigzagoon uses the hair on its back to leave territorial markings on trees, and it can even play dead to fool its enemies in battle.”
I crouch down and pet Zigzagoon's head, the Pokémon responds by moving its head and closing its eyes in satisfaction, enjoying the movement of my hand over his fur.
“Okay buddy, looks like we are going to be partners for today, are you excited to battle?”, the only answer I get is him looking at me in recognition, thinking for a moment and then run around me excitedly. I’m guessing that’s a yes.
Looking back on his moves, I think this is going to be hard, both Growl and Tail whip are known as joke moves because they aren’t really effective in battle, well, not in high level battles at least. Meanwhile, Sand Attack might be hard to use in this concrete arena, it usually needs for some sand or dirt for the pokemon to kick or hurl towards their opponents. That leaves us Tackle and Covet, the first being the most basic physical attack almost every pokemon can use, the second I have some experience with thanks to Teddy.
I grab Zigzagoon and hold the little racoon in my arms, he is young enough for me to be able to lift him, a full grown one might be too heavy, yet he moves around in my arms and ends up making me fall into the ground while I keep him close.
Somehow, we end up playing around while waiting for the battles to begin, earning me some mocking looks from my classmates, who are testing the moves from their partners. Me? I don’t see the point, as I look around it’s clear we all got low level normal types with the most basic of moves, and ten minutes isn’t enough time for us to teach them some complex strategy, the best I can do is get Zigzagoon to get familiar with me and trust me a little bit.